Black Boy Essay Research Paper Black Boy

Black Boy Essay, Research Paper

Black Boy Essay

The famous American writer Richard Wright had a terrible upbringing. He had to deal with his fathers abandonment, his mothers abusiveness, the anxiety of constantly moving houses, and worst of all the terrible racial prejudice of his time. Wright grew up in the first quarter century of the 1900s in the most racially separated part of America, the South. The problems stemming from his family only added to the problems he faced every day for being black. Whites would abuse Wright in many ways, physically abusive, verbally abusive, and the worst of all to Wright, politically abusive whites. In Richard Wright’s book, Black Boy, he wrote about his childhood in Mississippi. Wright wrote about experiences he had that show the racial segregation of the South. This racial prejudice affected Richard Wright so much, that it changed his life when he was growing up in the South.

Racial prejudice often leads to physical violence. Many times in his book, Richard Wright told about violence happening to himself or other people. All this violence has one thing in common, they happen only because of the black skin of the people. Wright told about a time when he was attacked by a group of angry white teenagers. Their car drove by Richard who was walking to work and offered him a ride. ” All set?’” they asked. ” Yes sir’” Richard answered and, before he knew it, one of the boys threw an empty bottle at Richard, knocking him off the moving car. “Dazed, I pulled to my feet. My elbows and legs were bleeding.” As Richard stood up, the one who threw the bottle told Richard that he should talk with more respect to white people, and told him, ” You’re a lucky bastard, cause if you’d said that to some other white man, you might been a dead nigger now.’” Previously, Richard had only heard stories of racial violence toward blacks, now he had felt it himself. This experience was the first act of violence toward him, and his views of whites in the South were now filled with personal hatred. During Richards stay in Memphis, a thing took place that is perhaps direct physical abuse from someone. Richard’s co-workers schematically forced Richard to fight a black kid working across the street from him. The co-workers threatened him into fighting and to cap it off paid the two five dollars, even though the men made more from a large audience. “Now shame filled me,” Richard thought as he stepped into the ring. The white men turned two friends into enemies. ” Hit that nigger’” they yelled. “I felt trapped and ashamed….I could not look at Harrison. I hated him and I hated myself…Harrison and I avoided each other afer that…” (286-287) The two men had turned two friends into enemies solely for there personal entertainment. Richard felt that he had broken morals, about what he would do for money. Richard vowed he would never let this happen again.

Racial prejudice can also lead to fear, or psychological stress. In the South in the early century many blacks feared for their lives daily. Wright tells stories of his personal fears that he has only because of the prejudices white people inflict on him. Fears would happen while working, while shopping at a store, while at a library, or while walking down the street. When Wright moved to Memphis, he had lots of free time, and filled this by reading books. After a short while, the magazines a other novels were not satisfying Richard anymore. So through Wright’s quest for more literature he finds some by H.L. Menken. H. L. Menken is a controversial writer who wrote about racism in the U.S. The problem was there was no way Richard could have access to these books in the South. If Richard approached a bookkeeper about a book by Menken, he feared she would not let him check it out and worse give him a bad reputation in the town which could cost him his job. Wright wondered, “Now, how could I find out about this Menken? There was a huge library near the river front, but knew that Negros were not allowed….” And if Richard could access these books he thought, “And how could I read them without causing a concern to the white men whom I worked?” Wright’s desire to gain knowledge about racial views of other people was a threat to the white community in the South. However, Wright was willing to risk his job and house for more education about racism. This was not the only time racial prejudices put fear in Richard. While Richard was working for an optimalogist in his home town two other employees began to threaten Richard. One employee asked Richard if he called him “Pease” instead of “Mr. Pease”, which was an insult to him. Trapped, Richard did not know what to say, if he said “yes, I did call you Pease,” Pease would have beaten Richard. On the other hand, if he said “no”, the other employee would have beaten Richard. Because of the fear Richard had of his fellow workers, he quit his job which was well paying. The white men had put so much fear into Richard that without any physical abuse, they got rid of Richard.

Finally, racial prejudice can cause someone to act against their morals and beliefs. Some things Wright did were desperate measures he took to escape the pressures of racial prejudices on him. Wright showed strong morals throughout the book. He had too much pride to break those morals. Wright’s family and the people around him saw this as stubbornness. When Richard had analyzed a situation from every